ppt the dilemma of death
TRANSCRIPT
Literature, Art and Film
Connections
Edvard Munch
Fellowship assures Everyman that he
will accompany his friend wherever he
is going, but when he hears of the
destination, Fellowship declines.
He offers women and good times, but
he will not go on a journey to face
God’s judgment
Pride: excessive belief in one’s own abilities
Envy: the desire for others’ traits, status,
abilities, goods, or situation
Gluttony: desire to consume more than one
requires
Lust: a craving for the pleasures of the body
Anger: the individual spurns love and opts for
fury
Greed: the desire for material wealth
Sloth: the avoidance of physical work
Everyman turns to Goods, for
whom he has committed so many
of the sins that weigh heavily upon
him.
Goods cannot leave earth’s
bounds; what man acquires on
earth must be left behind.
Fellowship abandons Everyman
Relatives abandon Everyman
Everyman becomes aware that he
has trusted in the wrong things
What will he do now?
Everyman asks Good Deeds
for help, but Good Deeds is
weak, collapsed at Everyman’s
feet.
Good Deeds is incapacitated
by Everyman’s sins and cannot
help.
Knowledge takes Everyman to visit Confession, where he learns that repentance of his sins is the means to salvation.
Acknowledging his sins, the burden is lifted from Everyman’s soul
In addition to Knowledge, Everyman now
has the companionship of Discretion,
Beauty, Strength, Five Senses
Everyman prepares to meet Death
Beauty abandons Everyman
Strength departs from Everyman
Discretion leaves Everyman
Five Senses abandons Everyman
Knowledge departs from Everyman
Only Good Deeds remains with Everyman for the final journey
An angel greets Everyman to
escort him to the Final Judgment,
where only Good Deeds can
speak for him.
All men must make this journey
Devastation, pestilence, fatal, hideous, horror of blood, sharp pains, profuse bleeding, scarlet stains, victim, disease = The Red Death The signature marks of The Red Death:
Redness of the blood
Scarlet stains
Death occurs within thirty minutes of infection
Prince Prospero, has summoned a thousand of his “lighthearted friends” to join him in a “castellated abbey” which has strong and lofty walls and “gates of iron.”
Outside the ‘secure fortress’ Red Death rampages and decimates its victims
Allusion—Prince Prospero—Shakespeare: In the Tempest Prospero realizes his short comings and is transformed. However, in the “Masque of the Red Death,” Prospero is destroyed because of his hubris
Perhaps one of the most vivid examples of
hubris in ancient Greek literature is in Homer’s
Iliad
Another example is in Oedipus Rex. Oedipus
meets King Laius of Thebes. Oedipus kills King
Laius who is his biological father. He then
marries his mother, discovers what he has done,
and gouges out his eyes because of his guilt and
shame.
In The Odyssey Odysseus incurs Poseidon’s
wrath for blinding Polyphemus, Poseidon’s son;
Odysseus is then punished for his actions
Folly and futility
People try to escape death
However, Death is a foe we cannot escape
Poe uses unity of effect, in this case a closed room and high exterior walls, to give the impression that there is no escape from impending doom
Unity of effect is the emotion that the text conveys The term was coined by Edgar Allen Poe.
The revelers are locked inside high walls and the gates of iron; they are further enclosed by the seven halls
The Red Death “passes in close proximity to all of the guests”
Possible interpretations
Seven Deadly Sins
Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man
Pride: excessive belief in one's own abilities; interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God
Envy: the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, goods, or situation
Gluttony: desire to consume more than that which one requires
Lust: a craving for the pleasures of the body
Anger: manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury
Greed: the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual
Sloth: the avoidance of physical or spiritual work
Infant
Scholar
Lover
Soldier
Justice
Middle age
Old Age and Death: That ends this strange
eventful history…Sans teeth, sans eyes,
sans taste, sans everything.
Room 1: decorated in blue
Room 2: decorated in purple
Room 3: decorated in green
Room 4: decorated in orange
Room 5: decorated in white
Room 6: decorated in violet
Room 7: decorated in black
The apartment is ―shrouded in black
velvet,‖ the windows are ―scarlet—a deep
blood-color.‖
―The effect of the firelight upon the blood
tinted panes is ghastly in the extreme, and
produces so wild a look upon the
countenance of those who enter it that
there are few…bold enough to set foot
within it.‖
Poe’s purpose in these descriptions,
particularly the black room, has no relation
to reality. No such place as the black room
would be used as a part of a ballroom. But
Poe wants to achieve an effect—a total,
unified effect—in order to show the close
proximity of the revelry of life to the
inevitability of death.
Black usually symbolizes death.
Moreover, in describing the black decor of
the room, the narrator says that it is
shrouded in velvet, shrouded being a
word always referring to death.
Likewise, the window panes are
―scarlet—a deep blood color.‖
This is an obvious reference to the ―Red
Death.‖
Beginning
The Eastern room
(symbolic of the
beginning of life)
The Western room
(symbolic of the
end of life)
End
The rapid passing of time, represented by
the black clock; every time the clock strikes
the hour, the musicians quit playing
It is as though each hour is ―to be stricken‖
upon their brief and fleeting lives.
Poe reminds the reader that between the
striking of each hour there elapses ―three
thousand and six hundred seconds of the
Time that flies.‖
At midnight
At the end of the day
As a corpse
Sprinkled with blood
Poe, by his choice of
words, captures man’s
universal fear of death
Ebenezer Scrooge is:
Unfeeling
Unsympathetic
Miserly
Ebenezer Scrooge: employers versus employees
Ebenezer Scrooge versus employees: symbolized by
Bob Cratchit
Ebenezer Scrooge versus the poor: symbolized by the
two Good Samaritans
Ebenezer Scrooge versus the imprisoned: symbolized by
the two Good Samaritans
Law (symbolized by Ebenezer Scrooge) versus Grace
(symbolized by Fezziwig, Fred Scrooge, and especially,
Tiny Tim)
Ebenezer Scrooge versus the sick: typified by Tiny Tim
Ebenezer Scrooge versus the supernatural: typified by
Scrooge’s encounter with the Ghost of
the Future (AKA Death) transforms
him from a cold, ruthless, miser into a
giving and caring gentleman
Scrooge temporarily avoids his
inevitable date with Death
He is given more time to accrue Good
Deeds and to get his account in order
before the Day of Reckoning
I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him,
dear Father.
Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend Mr.
Bailey.
Help my son George tonight.
He never thinks about himself, God; that's why
he's in trouble.
George is a good guy. Give him a break, God.
I love him, dear Lord. Watch over him tonight.
Please, God. Something's the matter with Daddy.
Please bring Daddy back.
Potter: Have you put any real pressure on those people
of yours to pay those mortgages?
Bailey: Times are bad, Mr. Potter. A lot of these people
are out of work.
Potter: Then foreclose!
Bailey: I can't do that. These families have children.
Potter: They're not my children.
Bailey: But they're somebody's children.
Potter: Are you running a business or a charity ward?
George Bailey—the unsung hero of Bedford
Falls
George lives by a creed that always places
human need above riches
Capra effectively captures the darkness of
George's mood as his mounting personal and
financial troubles plunge him into an abyss of
despair—George standing on a bridge,
contemplating suicide.
George's lovable, bumbling guardian angel, has
to prove to George that his life is worth living.
To defend his position, Clarence grants George
one wish: to see what the world would be like if
he had never been born.
The Three Dead
You, Laborer, who in care and pain
Have lived your whole life
Must die, that is certain...
You should be happy to die,
For it frees you from great care...
To which the Laborer replies;
Many long for death
Not I! Come wind or rain,
I'd rather be back in the vineyard again.
The Guyot verses
We are alive,
therefore we
will die.
Pass by! O pass me by!
Away, wild mask of death!
I am still young! Oh why
destroy me with your breath?
Give me your hand, you lovely, tender
child
I am your friend and bring no harm.
Have courage. See, I am not wild.
Now go to sleep upon my arm.
Schubert's 1817 suite Der Tod und
das Mädchen.
Because I could not stop for Death–He kindly stopped for
me–The Carriage held but just Ourselves–And
Immortality. We slowly drove–He knew no haste And I
had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His
Civility–We passed the School, where Children strove At
Recess–in the Ring–We passed the Fields of Gazing
Grain–We passed the Setting Sun– Or rather–He passed
us–The Dews drew quivering and chill–For only
Gossamer, my Gown–My Tippet–only Tulle–We paused
before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground–The Roof was scarcely visible–
The Cornice–in the Ground– Since then–’tis Centuries–
and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the
Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity–
Out of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.
Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid…I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me
And may there be no mourning of the bar
When I put out to sea...
But such a side is moving seems asleep
Too full for sound and foam
When that which drew out from the boundless deep
Turns again home.
For tho’ from out our stream of time and place
The flood may bear me far
I hope to see my Pilot face to face,
When I have crossed the bar.
If there’s no resurrection…then everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors…Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.
The truth is: Christ has been
raised from the dead…
Everybody dies because of
Adam’s transgression;
everybody comes alive in
Christ. God won't let up until the
last enemy is down—and the
very last enemy is death!
As the last trumpet sounds the dead
will be raised from their graves, never
to die again.
Then the saying will come true:
―Death has lost the battle!
Where is its victory?
Where is its sting?‖
Sin, guilt, and death will be
vanquished and demolished. In
Death’s place we will be given the gift
of eternal life.